Ally Condie's Novel Matched Trilogy

The following excerpt from Ally Condie’s Matched, provides insightful context to the overall theme of the novel:

“Something’s changing. Something’s happening.” This quote tells me that there is going to be a shift in society. It could be for the worse, or it could be for the better. We aren’t quite sure yet. “Grandfather is the one who finally made me stop sitting at the edge of the pool.” At this point, grandfather is the reason that Cassia is as confident as she is and will provide her confidence to defy the society in the future. “This is the difference between us. I live to sort; he knows how to create. He can write words whenever he wants. He can swirl them in the grass, write them in the sand, carve them in a tree.” This quote foreshadows that Cassia and Ky might have some complications with their relationship in the

Society forces people to conform to its standards. “Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater.” (Self-Reliance) To live deliberately is to live according to one’s own standards. McCandless sought to escape conformity by living on the edge of society, he chose to ignore government

The collectivist society in which Equality 7-2521 lives is similar to the Nazi and Communist states of the twentieth century. It is controlled like the society in “The Giver.” The rulers of this society do not permit any individual to think freely. They must think they are nothing. “We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the state. Amen.”(21).

In Crossed, by Ally Condie, Cassia is breaking free of the society’s rules. The society chooses everything for them, who they marry, their job, how many children they can have, what their food is, and Cassia is sick of it. She is sent to a work camp to make up for all of the rule-breaking that she has done, but she escapes and runs away in search of her boyfriend. When they reunite, they go in search of a rebellion called the Rising, they find it and join it. Internal conflict and character relationships are shown in the trust and mistrust between Cassia and Indie, the relationship between Ky and Indie, and the internal conflict of Cassia.

After reading, Breaking Night by Liz Murray, it left me in all, in a swing of emotions but thrilled in the end. To listen to Liz struggle and pain that she endured as a child and being homeless during her teenage years made me look a life in a whole different way and made me appreciate my life so much more. I could never imagine going through the obstacles Liz was thrown with, such as, drug addictive parents with AIDS, the pressure of taking care of everyone but herself, juggling school and more. It made me realize that my life isn’t so bad, that there are people going through worse situations than I am and to appreciate the little things that I do have.

Many people theorize that this bleak, dark story may not be what it appears on the surface. Many people believe that the story represents something much more. In 2006, McCarthy sat down for a rare interview with Oprah Winfrey. In that interview, McCarthy described the novel as a love story to his son. While this is straight from the author’s mouth, this has not stopped many readers from theorizing what McCarthy was trying to convey in his dystopian novel.The following is one of those theories for your consideration.

People often believe teachers, friends, and parents are the ones that teach them the most in life. Although this may be true, a work of literature can also teach a person many valuable life lessons that no one else can. In a work of literature, all themes connect to one significant lesson. Lawrence and Lee’s Inherit The Wind has rich themes that demonstrate the world resist change. One important theme is to always be open-minded. Equally important, is the theme that differences can tear people apart. Not to mention, freedom of thought is also a critical theme. Therefore, themes in Inherit The Wind shows the struggle of change to occur.

One thing that both societies have to give up is free will. Free will is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act one’s own discretion. In 1984, Big Brother controls the whole society. Big Brother monitors each and every person in the society through telescreens, which are highly advanced screens that can detect Face Crime and Thought Crime. In Matched, the officials don’t watch the citizens as harshly as 1984, but still make sure that the citizens aren’t committing any infractions. But in Matched, they do have a telescreen that they can contact people. But the government is not able to watch them. We can conclude with the examples we have that both societies have a lack of free will.

Life would be perfect if everyone could be married to their true love, jobs fit perfectly to personalities, and diseases were practically nonexistent. The Society in Ally Condie’s novel Matched offers these things and more. But what exactly is the real price for having a seemingly perfect life? In order to have a perfect society with perfect lives, freedoms have to be given up and strict laws must be observed. This may be evident in the book especially, but can also be seen around the world in the different cultures that are prevalent.

anielle Steel is known to be among the most popular and highly esteemed authors in the world. She has written over ninety books that have found a market internationally. Among her novels include; His Bright Light, A Gift of Hope, Betrayal, First Sight, Nick Traina 's Life and Death, Big Girl, The Long Road Home, Southern Lights, and Winners among others. These books make her an icon to reckon with in the field of writing. However, many people have raised considerable critiques about her literary works because she writes almost related stories especially tragedies. Despite the critiques, she does not give up on her work because she believes that the message she is passing across is important for her readers. The readers have responded in kind and that is the reason why her books are best selling internationally.

The Society of Matched by Ally Condie is completely different from ours. In the Society, Officials choose who you marry, where you live, what you eat, and many other aspects of life. They have also limited things like music, art, literature, and even history lessons to one hundred each so as not to overwhelm citizens with too much knowledge. Cassia Maria Reyes is the main character of Matched. The conflict Cassia finds herself in is when she sees two Matches on the Matching screen.

Cassia and Ky break this law every day when they meet with each other. They know that if the government finds this out, they will have been considered traitors and will be relocated. However, every moment the hide their secret, the more their feelings become stronger for each other. This is conflicting because the government controls every aspect of their lives; who they marry, when they marry, where they live and work, what they eat, and when they die. They have no choice but to follow the laws. They try to contain their feelings but that plan does not work. Cassia and Ky make a decision to defy the law and be

Rebecca Stead is fame as an American writer of fiction for children and teens. The achievement of her novels is not doubtful. She was born on January 16, 1968 and raised in New York City. Vassar College was the institution where she acquired her bachelor’s degree in 1989. Moreover, she has started to write since she was a child but she altered her career to become a lawyer. However, Stead started to become of writing subsequent to the birth of her two children. Her inspiration of writing children’s novel was from her son and her collections of story stories on her laptop. One day, her 4-year-old son by chance pushed her laptop out off the dining-room table and destroyed her piece of writing. Stead was very angry with her son and she went to the bookstore to find books which can inspire her to write. From that moment, her motivation and loving in writing began to boost up, and her debut novel was First Light which won The New York Best Times. Due to her great spirit in writing, she won The American Newbery Medal in 2010, Winner of the Boston Globe –Horn Book Award for Fiction, IRA Children’s Book Award for Young Adult Fiction, A Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner and A National Parenting Publications Gold Award for her second novel, When You Reach Me, followed by achieving Guardian Prize in 2013 as the first winner for her third novel, Liar & Spy.

When choices are taken away and creative freedoms are controlled, the result is a society that is very limited in diversities. Beatty explained that in order for a society to continue properly you must take away options he said, “ Don't give him two sides to question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war” ( Bradbury 61). According to Beatty to limit problems you simply delete options. When options are limited so is creativity and peoples ability to be unique. In addition to minimal political freedoms, job opportunities are controlled. Montag sat in the midst of a group of firemen and as he looked at them he noticed they looked the same and they were a mirror image of him.“Had he ever seen a fireman that didn't have black hair, black brows, fiery face, and blue-steel shaved but unshaved look? Theses men were mirror images of himself” ( Bradbury 33). No one is free to make their own career choice. It should